Abstract
The mouth guard is considered as an essential part of equipment for athletes participating in the contact sports. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the influences of custom-made mouth guards on physical performance capacity in high school rugby players. Subjects were 21 rugby players aged between 15 and 17 years. To determine the influences of a mouth guard use, 9 items of the physical performance tests were performed to evaluate agility, flexibility, balance, anaerobic power, muscle strength, etc. Test values with and without a mouth guard were compared. The results showed that wearing a mouth guard has no significant effects on all physical performance tests. In conclusion, high school rugby players can use a custom-made mouth guard without positive and negative influences with significance on their physical performance capacities.
